Road Trip Day 7 - Kano

We'd made it to Kano. The old capital of the North that had been hosting traders from across the Sahara for over 1000years and one of the centres of Islam in the North. It is also in one of the twelve states of the north that have adopted sharia law. I guess this was the one thing on our minds and Chris, being a Christian Igbo from Enugu, wasn't super happy about the place. He stayed with his uncle who was a local trader who still kept a shotgun under his counter after the Sharia riots of 2003 and the violence early last year. Meanwhile we stayed in what was supposed to be a good hotel but turned out to be nothing more than a mozzie trap. Somehow, as soon as the sun went down our room was filled with literally thousands of mosquitoes that came from nowhere - didn't really make for a good night's sleep. Ordering dinner was easy though. We were too tired to go out after the days drive from yankari so we just went to the "restaurant" at the hotel. again it was only us in there and the girl that eventually came to see what we wanted, replying matter of factly after we asked for a menu "yes we have food - chicken and rice" - "I guess we'll have that then" we replied with gusto - best jollof rice and chicken I've had for ages. Just no sign of any alcohol (except for the beer's we'd hidden in our room

Anyway, all that aside. Kano, being the commerce centre of the North and a power in Sub-Saharan Africa for so many years, we were keen to have a look around. The old city, in the middle of town, now surrounded by sprawl was formally walled, and most of the gates to the Old City survive in one state or another - this one's sponsored by Milo!!

In the middle of the Old City is the huge Kurmi Market, now known for its crafts and whatnot - but also a major centre for sub-Saharan slave trade to the Arabs (some of the old salve quarters were still there). It was an amazing old market - complete with the original open sewers running meters below your feet as you crossed rickety little bridges. I wish we had some photos, but like any crowded area in Nigeria, you're asking for serious trouble taking photos of people, so here's on I managed to find on the net - thanks Gary Cook

Kurmi market is a labyrinth of little alleyways barely wide enough to walk through so we parked the car out of the way and got some local boys to watch the car while some others offered to show us around. We managed to pick up some beautiful woven cloth, leather stuff, and some traditional Fulani hats (kinda like a pointy sombrero with leather on it - quite cool). Luckily we were there before it really fired up so we could get around without much hastle and the vendors were easy to haggle with. The meat market hadn't started - thank god - so we only had to walk through the flow blown stains of the previous days trade - no one's heard of refrigeration in these markets.

Down the road, some old dye pits still operate under a cooperative and we managed to find the head of the co-op to show us around. He had great English so we didn't have to stumble through broken pidgin and Chris's hausa and he was happy for us to take photos if we dashed everyone a few naira. It was quite amazing to see this group of old craftsmen dying in the same pits (clay lined hole in the ground) that they'd been using for the best part of 500 years!!

they still use the original method of indigo sticks and potash to dye cloth

they had some awesome indigo tie-dye stuff

The guy that was showing us around also took us back to his house where the women do the tying an weaving of the cloth. It seems that the women stay indoors and do this while the men do the actual dyeing outdoors in the nearby pits.

After a lot of walking we all needed some lunch, so we headed back to a bakery we'd passed earlier to find some lunch - bloody good falafel and shwarmas from a Lebanese bloke - most impressed. For some reason up north there's bakeries everywhere (unlike Lagos that has only a hand full - all aimed at rich expats and stocked with terrible bread)

Only problem was that Kano - being the centre of commerce and all - it's traffic is terrible!! And not knowing your way around, you kinda end up going with the traffic flow even though you really should be going "over there"

Kano "go slow"

plastic market

even the commerce of begging was well organised...

Friday prayers at the central mosque in Kano regularly pull over 10,000 people, shutting down the local streets for blocks. Unfortunately it just happens that it's down the road from the museum which is built in the old emirs palace. It didn't seem like a good idea that a bunch of Christians from out of town should try and plough through the middle of a prayer session, so we waited it out, having a slow lunch - before heading back after it was all over.

Kano Central Mosque after Friday prayers

The museum was amazing and a guy offered to show us around - which in itself is particularly special (anyone will try and offer you their services for a dash of some kind) - but this guy was actually good, and I mean really good. Rather than just making up answers, lying or pretending not to hear / understand when we asked questions - this guy knew the answers. I remember last year we were climbing this mountain (really just one massive rock) at a place called idanre and we had to "hire" an "official" guide or they wouldn't let us climb - so when we're at the top of this rock I asked the guy how old he thought it might be. After a brief pause he looked at me and said "100 years" as though he knew everything. Anyway, if you're ever in Kano recommend the museum - goes through all the stuff on the jihad and the British occupation

The Emir's palace in Kano

After a long day wandering around, we swapped hotels to a fancy Lebanese place (if you hadn't noticed the Lebanese have been in Nigeria since the Brits left and own pretty much everything). We even got the choice of a room with carpet!! It was the carpeted first room we had been in since we were last in oz - awesome....

The guide book that we had - which was only a year old - suggested an Indian place not far from the hotel. Problem was, when we turned up it wasn't there anymore! There's only one guidebook for this country and it's completely useless!! GREAT. Luckily the security guard thought that it was over on another road - after driving around for a while it was pure luck that we saw a small sign pointing down a side street and we finally found it. Although the place was booked out for a function, the young Indian guy running the place said we could sit outside and have a meal. When asked what we'd like to drink we looked a bit sheepish, hoping for something stronger than orange juice. When he asked if we want a beer we heaved a great sigh of relief - like so many laws (well, actually every law) in this country, everyone breaks them and no one seems to care. So we heartily tucked into some bloody good home cooked Indian and a couple of beers all for the price of loaf of bread in Lagos! amazing

We've finally found something worth learning! Suya is basically meat on a stick. So when we're back in Oz, you may refer to us as Doctor's Guise and McCowan (PhD Meatology) mmm....